Equalizer beam for railway trucks



v% @16 EC I July 10, 1951 A. G. DEAN EQUALIZER BEAM FOR RAILWAY TRUCKS Filed April 24, 1946 ICxi 22 L4 L5 15 21 Li 1 A J 1 A Q L c A i9 m L L i0- i WA In llllll IiIIIIEiEE Ii Illiiliiiiliiilliilll ii iii lllillllllllllllllll M m llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllIlllllllllllll {IHIIIIIIIHIII I INVENTORI /A n lberf C1. Deaf. f

I 5 ATTORNEY Patented July i0, 195] irso STATE-S PATENT OFFICE tion of Pennsylvania Application April '24, 1946, serial N6. 664.649

The invention relates toraihvay t' A more particularly to the equalizers associated therewith.

Railway trucks are well known to comprise a large proportion of the i'g'ht of the modern light Weight railway car. A considerable portion of thistruck" weight is comprised by the e ualizers resting on the tops of the journal boxes of the spaced truclz' axles, and this weight is uns'prufig weight. Any reduction in this unspru'ng w ht is highly desirable. Equalizers as heretofore constructed of a solid bar of carbon'steel'orrectangular cross-section, were inordinately heavy.

It isan object of the invention to provide'an equalizer of this class which is relatively light in weight while yet of adequate strength, and. one

which lends itself to fabrication inexpensivelyand without extensive machining operations;

This object is attained in large part by fabrieating the equalizer in the main of an l ero'sssection, the upwardly extending and vertically offset ends of which gradually" merge with the I-cros's-sectlon of the main body to provide? a cross-section in this critical heavily tensionstressed region near the journal seat having a heavy'section at thebottom and a lightersection' at the top; and designedto reduce the-"hight'iision stresses in this region to'pre'vent d'ang'erl of fatigue failure. The I-section' of the main body preferablymerges at the oflset'endsinto a rinverted T- or generally trapezoidal cross-section; andit will be obvious that a beamof this crosssection can be readily manufacturedby drop forging operations, with a minimum of"me't'chi'rling' afterwards. I

This cross-section of equalizer beam has a "very high strengthweight ratio and this can be "fur: therincreased by choosing for the materialof the beam high strength alloy steels suitably heat treated tohigh'physic'al properties.

With the improved equalizer of the' invention; it'is readily feasible'to save in the unsp'r' n'g weight of a single X'10 truck inthe'n'eigh borhood of 500 lbs. weight,"or'250 lbsIpe'r equal-T izer, over the trucks using theconveritional r' tangular'cross-section carbon steel equalizernow in use, and this saving is in the importanFun sprung weight. Moreover, the Weightsavir'ig'may be accompanied by an increase in margin of safety, since the allowable stresses may be established at a lower percentage of the yield strength ofi the material as compared with the conventi'onalcarbonsteelequalizers:

These and other and further "objectsand ad' vantages will-becomelapparent 'froiii the following detailed description when read in connection with the appended drawings forming apart-of this; specification.

In the drawings, Fig. 1 isa side elevational view" of a: conventiohal railway car truck, with the" equalizer. of. the invention shown in heavy shaded lines and the remainder o1- the truck more or less diagram matically in'light unshaded lines.

Fig. 2is" an; enlarged side elevational View of. one end of the equalizer, showing in dot and dash lines a spring seat in relation thereto.

Big. 3 is a plan view of the equalizer end; and

. Figs. 4, 5 and 6 are sections taken, respectively, along the lines 44, 5 -5 and 66 of Fig; 2.

The conventional truck to which the equalizer of the invention is shown applied may comprise the spaced wheel and axle assemblies Iil, l0 car-' rying journal boxes i l, ll at their opposite ends. which are vertically slidably received in the ped estals l2, l2 forming part of the truclg frame 13. The truck frame i3 is carried by the equalizers, throughthe spring nests I l,- l t which seat at their upper ends in spring: seats [5,, I5 on the frame and at theirlower ends in spri ng seats l6,- IB carried by the equalizer ll. It will be understood that there are atleast two such equalizers one supporting each side of the truck frame from ghe adjacent ends of the wheel and axle assemlies.

The equalizer ll comprisesa main body portion l8 of I-cross-section as clearly shown in Fig, 4 and extending horizontally at a low level,- in the case shown,bel ow the axles l9 l9 and carrying the spring seats 16 lfiadjacent its opposite ends. This main body portion I emerges through r edl iti l tii i to er ica y e e d portions v2!, 21,. which. merge in turn thr ug reverselycurved' portions -22, 22 into generally horizontally extending end portions 23 23?, which latter are adapted "to seat on top of v the; journal llogggesl'l, II at the adjacent ends of theaxles In the critical region adjacent the journal box seat where the reverselypurved portion 22 merges with the end portion 23 and in the end portion itself} according to th'e'invention, theI-seiitidri of themain body of'th'e beam is modified to more efiiciently take the heavily concentrated tension, stresses in this region. The cro'ss s'ection in; this critical region is substantially that shown in Fig. 5 which shows the bottom of a the ,beamjhavmg' a 'hea'vy tensionbhord portion 25 ofth'elsame width as bottom chord of the niain portion of the beam butoi much greater vertical depth (compare Figs. 5 t ire) Ini ,reg-ion the top chord of the main portion l8- and the web are merged into a combined web; audit herd Z8 narrower; than the tension chord 25 and co nstitutingrgthe'beam in this region of substantially inverted T- or generallytrapezoidal cross-sectiong",v Thismerger of the I-seotion of; themain bQdYy aSzSl'lOWD. in Fig.4, into the section oflEig. 5;;proge eds grad a th oue-h th pw rd y ex: tending. portion--21 and into the-reversely curved formed with a widened seat 28, see Figs. 2 and 6,

extending laterally on both sides beyond the width of the tension chord portion 25. Such widened seat is desirable since it increases the wearing surface, both laterally and vertically, and this greatly increases the life of the equalizer. Also, it is possible with this arrangement to build up this widened seat by welding (in case of severe wear) without welding directly to the structural portion of the beam.

In Fig. 2, there is indicated in dot and dash lines, the approximate location of the neutral axis 29 of the equalizer beam. It will be noted that, the sectional conformation of the beam brings about the location of this axis close to the bottom margins of the beam in the critical end region. This greatly reduces the tension stresses in this critical region. While it at the same time results in somewhat higher compression stresses, these present no particular problem and do not normally tend to produce fatigue failure under usual operating conditions. This also increases the radius of curvature of this axis over that of the beam as a whole, which reduces the stress increase normally encountered in curved beams.

While the invention has been herein described in detail as applied to a specific embodiment, it will be understood that changes and modifications may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the main features of the invention, and such changes and modifications are intended to be covered by the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. An equalizer beam of the type having a main body portion extending horizontally and merging at its ends through first curved portions into upwardly extending inclined portions which in turn merge through second reversely curved portions into generally horizontally extending end portions designed to rest upon the journal boxes carried by the adjacent ends of spaced axles of a railway truck, characterized by the fact that the main body portion and the first curved portions are of I-cross-section, said I-cross-section merging gradually through at least portions of said upwardly extending portions and the second reversely curved portions into reversely curved portions and end portions throughout of generally trapezoidal cross-section materially heavier at the bottom than at the top, thereby increasing the radius of the curvature of the neutral axis of the beam in this heavily stressed reversely curved region substantially over the curvature of the beam as a whole whereby the beam is more uniformly stressed throughout this reversely curved end portion thereof.

2. An equalizer beam of the type having main body portion extending horizontally and merging at its ends through first curved portions into upwardly extending inclined portions which in turn merge through second reversely curved portions into generally horizontally extending end portions designed to rest upon the journal boxes carried by the adjacent ends of spaced axles of a railway truck, characterized by the fact that the main body portion and the first curved portions are of I-cross-section, said I- cross-section merging gradually through the upper portions of said upwardly extending portions and parts of said reversely curved portions into the remainder of said reversely curved portions and end portions throughout of generally inverted T-cross-section materially heavier at bottom than at top, thereby increasing the radius of the curvature of the neutral axis of the beam in this heavily stressed reversely curved region materially over the curvature of the beam as a whole in said region.

3. A forged equalizer beam having a main body portion extending horizontally and extended upwardly at its ends to merge through curved portions into horizontally extending extremities adapted to seat upon adjacent journal boxes of a railway truck, the main body being of I-crosssection merging gradually, in the critically stressed region through the curved portions, into the curved portions and the horizontally extending extremities throughout of a cross-section materially heavier at the bottom than at the top, thereby increasing the radius of the curvature of the neutral axis of the beam in this critically stressed region substantially over the curvature of the beam as a whole in this region.

4. A forged equalizer beam for railway trucks having a main body portion extending horizontally and extended upwardly at its ends to merge through curved portions into horizontally extending extremities adapted to seat upon adjacent journal boxes of a railway truck, the main body being of I-cross-section merging gradually into the curved portions and end extremities throughout of a cross-section having materially greater width and mass adjacent the bottom than adjacent the top, thereby substantially increasing the radius of the curvature of the neutral axis of the beam in the critically stressed region through the curved portions over that of the main body of the beam in this region.

5. A forged equalizer beam having a main body extending horizontally and extended upwardly at its ends to merge through curved portions into horizontally extending extremities adapted to seat upon adjacent journal boxes of a railway truck, the main body being of I-crosssection merging gradually through portions of the upwardly extending portions and the curved portions into curved portions and end extremities of a different cross-section having a lower portion throughout of materially greater crosssectional area than the cross-sectional area of the bottom chord of the I-cross-section of the main body of the beam, thereby increasing the radius of the curvature of the neutral axis of the beam in this critically stressed curved region substantially over the curvature of the beam as a whole.

ALBERT G. DEAN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 718,580 Player et al. Jan. 13, 1903 895,827 Wright et al Aug. 11, 1908 1,701,271 Mussey Feb. 5, 1929 2,374,777 Pflager May 1, 1945 

